1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method, and particularly relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for displaying an image with an optimal viewpoint and sight line direction by using a bone part unit corresponding to a designated bone region from a bone area extracted from an X-ray CT image in a medical image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, medical diagnosis is widely performed by using the sectional images of the insides of human bodies of CT, MRI, PET and the like, and an image diagnosis support system using a computer is known.
At this time, as the preprocessing of MIP (maximum intensity projection) image display, bone number recognition, or bone display in the image diagnosis support system, a bone area is automatically extracted from an X-way CT image.
When it is confirmed whether the result of the automatic bone extraction is correct or not, a volume rendering method generally known is frequently used. However, in the case of the object having a complicated structure such as a skeletal structure, a plurality of structural parts overlay one another to cause partial hiding depending on the position of a viewpoint at the time of displaying the image. In such a case, in order to confirm the bone extraction result of the region of interest, it is necessary to determine the position of the viewpoint so that hiding occurs as little as possible.
For this purpose, for example, a method is conventionally known, in which when the viewpoint position is designated by a mouse from the sectional image of the target area, and the angle indicating the sight line direction is input by a keyboard, a pseudo three-dimensional image in the case of seeing the inside of an organ in the sight line direction from the viewpoint position designated above by using the center projection method is constituted and displayed on the CRT, and the viewpoint position and the sight line direction of the pseudo three-dimensional image can be changed by the mouse and the keyboard (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-11614).